"Dr Khan?" Andrea leapt up, "You know where he is?"

"Sit down Andrea," said the humanoid, "There's no need for all this."

Andrea sat down as the humanoid joined her.

"I'm from the Tifias. You can call me a roguey, if you'd like."

"Why are you helping me?"

"You're a victim of conscience."

"What do you mean?"

"You were eliminated on illogical grounds."

"And what were those illogical grounds?"

"Before you know what were they, you need to know who the Tifias are," said Bill.

"So who are the Tifias honestly?" asked Andrea.

"It's a long story," remarked Bill, "This video's going to tell you all about it."

Bill's face turned into a video screen. The video began to play on his face.

A mechanical voice narrated the entire video.

The Tafias are the 22nd century's most notable organization. Lauded as the organization that discovered time travel, and outlawed it, they've been successful in world domination ever since their inception in 2090.

They founded it 100 years after I was born, thought Andrea.

No one had heard about the Tafias back in the 2090s, but they released a weird hypothesis of able to successfully manipulate past events and influence the future directly. Even distinguished past scientists like Stephen Hawking would have been impressed.

Time travel was invented in 2093 by the Tifias, and legalized that year. Everyone's sci-fi dream was finally a reality, and many people were interested in taking time holidays- which is now known as holidays in the past.

Was a random person responsible for killing me? thought Andrea again.

But as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. Too bad the world could not see that. Chaos erupted in 2094 with the Time War, with history being altered forever. The war lasted forever, and without the timely interruption of the Tifias we would have never seen the world again.

The end of the Time War in 2096 brought to the outlawing of time travel. Time travel was never heard of again, but the Tifias have used the technology numerous times to alter the past. Politicians and celebrities hired the Tifias to alter history for the better, often for their own benefit.

The Tifias is notable for being an organization with the most amount of robot workers. Additionally, the Tifias are the largest organized group in history, with a membership of nearly 67% of the world's population.

Alas, till today, the founder and leader of this organization has never been known. Many suspect that it is one person, and the person is still alive today. Whoever it is, that person has potentially changed world history by founding or leading the Tifias.

*******************************

"I still don't get one thing though," remarked Andrea, "Why would they target me?"

"The Tifias have the technology to do anything they want," said Bill, "They're dictators. No one can stop them."

"But I will," said Andrea, "I've got to get Dr Khan and my future back."

"You have to take good care of your life Andrea," said Bill, "Our famous catchphrase is we are where you are, so they could strike you at the least expected time."

"No they won't," remarked the brave girl, "If the tide was in their favor in 2015, in 2115 I'm going to win it."

**************************

"Bill," said Andrea, "I don't understand. How did you know where to find me?"

The humanoid named Bill looked at the young girl who was confused with his motives.

"The Tifias have the technology to monitor anyone in the whole universe," said Bill, "But workers like us aren't allowed to touch it at all. Only the human killers are allowed to."

"Then how did you find me?"

Bill replied, "I had my ways."

A silence followed.

"How I found you isn't the main focus here," said the humanoid, "Your acquaintance, Dr Khan only has 16 hours left to live. After that they're going to travel in the past, and kill his past form."

"Oh my gosh," said the shock Andrea, "That's a fate worse than death."

"That's how we do it in the future, Andrea," said Bill, "As I said, politicians and celebrities have used it so many times and altered the future."

***************************

"When someone travels in time, that person will create another version of himself. And depending on what the traveler does, his clone will remain in the previous timeline and continue his life as it is."

"That doesn't explain anything," retorted Andrea.

"Ryan's been a hitman for only three years now. So obviously he took the easy way out when he was assigned to kill you."

"What do you mean the easy way out?" asked the perplexed girl.

"As I told you, because you time-travelled, there were two versions of you. While he went into the past and tried to kill you, I guess he didn't understand this rule. He killed one version of you and forgot about the other version of you."

"And the same thing happened with Dr Khan?"

"Yes," nodded Bill, "Yes it was."

For once, everything seemed to hit the nail on the head. She had finally found the satisfying answer to one question- but there was more perplexing questions that needed obvious answers.

"Wait a minute," said Andrea, puzzled, "Why would Ryan perform the whole mobile phone charade if he wanted to kill me at all costs?"

"He didn't," said Bill, "He was going to head to your apartment and kill you off that night."

"But he was there," protested Andrea, "Our mobile phones got exchanged."

"That wasn't him," admitted Bill, "It was me."

Andrea was startled at the revelation.

***************************

The man known as Ryan Beckman walked in his dictatorial manner to address his subordinates, whom were mostly androids. Even though he wasn't the supreme leader of the Tifias, which was still a mystery to the world, but the supreme leader himself had given him the assent to address the androids if Ryan found anything displeasing.

"Does anyone realize that someone isn't with us today?" asked Ryan as his voice rippled across the small room.

The androids looked at each other nervously. They knew that one of them was missing and all of the androids knew where he was.

"I knew this was bound to happen," said Ryan angrily, "All of you androids were designed to have utmost loyalty to the Tifias. Too bad one dumb android decided to switch his allegiance."

The androids looked at each other with uttermost fear.

"Bill had been a thorn in our affairs ever since he had been created. He doesn't understand the rationale behind what I was assigned to do. Andrea Walker is a liability to our operations and if we did not proceed with her elimination, the entire Tifian name would be erased from the face of time."

The androids understood what Ryan was saying, but were still shrouded in fear.

"The Tracker was last reported in the same vicinity that we believed Andrea was hiding," said Ryan, "It's been disposed of now, but that's already provided more than optimal proof."

Ryan stared at the androids with suspicion.

"I don't want any more betrayal from any of you at all," said Ryan, "The only key to save the Tifias is to proceed with the best course of action. In the name of time we shall!"

The androids echoed his words reluctantly.

*******************

"I've been the one saving your life every time you're muddled in a crisis," admitted Bill.

Andrea was in total shock. The man whom she found creepy earlier was actually Bill trying to save her.

"Ryan didn't tell me the reason why he wanted to kill you, but he did tell me the plan. When you were to return home and sleep that night, you would have slept forever and never woke up."

Andrea was a bit confused at Bill's statement.

"I couldn't let you go back to such danger," confessed Bill, "So I manifested Ryan's shape and exchanged your phone with mine."

"How did you do that?"

"You were so engrossed in the party that you didn't even notice," said Bill.

"What did you do with the phone then?"

"I modified it to a mini-time machine," said Bill, "In the 22nd century, that's normal."

"So the phone actually rescued me?" asked Andrea. Bill nodded.

"When you went into the future, your duplicate stayed behind to assume your position," said Bill as the events vividly formed in his mind, "Ryan had no idea that it was your duplicate that he killed."

Everything made sense to her now. The phone that she thought was the cause of the problem was actually her Messiah. And Bill had been very helpful from the start.

"But what about Dr Khan? How did his existence get erased as well?"

"The Tifias have spies everywhere Andrea," said Bill, "They must have seen your time travels and told Ryan about it. I suppose he took the easy way out again to deal with Dr Khan.

"And they approached me when we returned," deduced Andrea, "That led to me fighting them and defeating them."

The pieces of the puzzle were all in place now.

"Bill, thank you so much for doing this," said Andrea, "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"I was built to help humans," replied Bill with a chuckle, "You're the first Tifian target that isn't rich or connected with some celebrity. There's more to your story than meets the eye and that's why I had to help you."

Andrea embraced Bill tightly.

"I've never risked my life to help anyone before," said Bill, "But I have now."

Next Chapter: Chapter 11